before we’re noticed!” Angelique hustled back through the trees.
Pegasus followed behind her, keeping close enough that he bumped his muzzle against her temple as they fled. “I’ve gone an entire season without running into anyone cursed. That means we’re about due. I’m not putting my search aside to deal with another curse!”
The sad thing is, I’m only half-joking.
Luster Forest was not inhabited, which made the cottage suspicious.
It’s possible it could be home to a mage, but that is hardly a better situation considering what I’m attempting to do.
Angelique picked up her pace and traipsed through the trees. “We agree, then?” She twisted around to address Pegasus. “When we get out of these woods, you’ll head home to the sky?”
Pegasus’ mane flared brighter, and he snapped his teeth, creating a click so loud it made Angelique’s spine shiver.
That’s a refusal.
“But it’s necessary.”
Pegasus flicked his tail, creating a hiss of steam when the flames brushed against the slushy forest floor.
Angelique stopped, planted her hands on her knees, and laughed.
I can’t believe this. Last summer I felt so alone and valued only for what I could do. Now I have so many companions, I have to pry them off me.
It was such a delightful problem to have. Angelique looked at Pegasus with eyes that she knew were soft with warmth, even though she should have tried looking “stern.”
But I can’t help it. I finally have friendship and companionship. However, that doesn’t mean I’m going to let Pegasus come with me.
Angelique scratched her nose as she considered the constellation.
How could she possibly get him to listen to her? He was a constellation. She couldn’t make him do anything.
I guess my best option is trickery.
Angelique sighed. “You know, Pegasus—what was that?” She paused, bulging her eyes as she stared at the empty space behind Pegasus.
When Pegasus turned around to see what she was looking at, Angelique began her crafty master plan…and ran.
It took Pegasus a few moments to figure out there was nothing there, and then he raced after her.
Angelique crashed through the forest with the subtlety of a boulder rolling downhill. She zigzagged back and forth, trying to lose Pegasus as she fled.
He easily kept pace behind her—and his pinned ears said he didn’t find her plan at all amusing.
At one point, he clamped his teeth onto her cloak.
Angelique yanked it from his grasp, honked in laughter, and then sprinted blindly through the darkened forest.
Her glee was at a high point, until she hurtled between two trees and saw a young lady standing in the woods.
Angelique tried to dart around her, but she wasn’t fast enough, and collided with her instead, ricocheting off the young lady and smacking into a tree before hitting the slush-covered forest floor with a splat.
As slush soaked her cloak, Angelique’s high spirits crashed. A young lady wandering around a forest near dusk. This doesn’t bode well for me.
She groaned and peeled herself off the ground. “That hurt. I hate trees. And forests.” She boosted herself to her feet and flicked dead leaves off her clothes. Forests always, always, always hold cursed people. You never find a cursed prince or princess in a desert. Or on a…plateau or something.
When she finished tidying up her appearance, Angelique remembered the unfortunate—and perhaps unintelligent—young lady. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to scare you—though you must already be off your rocker if you’re wandering around a forest this close to nightfall.” She scratched her ear as she warily looked around.
Pegasus was nowhere to be seen—apparently he at least had the decency to remain hidden. But the young lady was silent as she peered at Angelique.
She’d gotten up faster than Angelique had and was clutching a thick branch like a club. As Angelique watched, some of the tension in her stance faded, and the branch fell from her loosened fingers.
Angelique cocked her head. “Are you hurt or something? Or do you just not talk?”
Stars above, I hope it’s not the latter. That’s a sure sign she’s cursed—and given that she’s alone, wandering in the woods at night, my chances that she’s a normal peasant girl are already very slim. Unless…is she a Chosen? No, I’d be able to sense if she had magic.
Angelique tugged her satchel and thrust a hand inside, feeling around until her fingers scraped across a crystal-like surface. She pulled out a starfire crystal and held it above her head. “Shine.”
The crystal shed a steady white light, brightening up the gloom of the forest and illuminating the young lady’s pretty features.
Her